In a rainy Richmond, Virginia, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated to a full term as Confederate president

02/22/1862

In a cold, wintery rain that lasted all day, Jefferson Finis Davis was inaugurated as the permanent president of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia's capitol square . He had been elected the previous November for a term of six years. In a ceremony before the Washington Monument also dampened by the recent defeat at Fort Donelson, Davis was sworn in by an Episcopal bishop standing in for the absent Chief Justice and gave a short speech. He had been serving on a provisional basis since early 1861. (By John Osborne)

Source Citation:

H.J. Eckenrode, Jefferson Davis, President of the South (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1923) 169-170.